High school aged adolescents often behave in ways inconsistent with their long-term best interests. This includes risk taking and failing to take known preventive measures to ensure long-term health. Their behaviors are often based on avoiding immediate small effort, cost, time burden, or physical or social discomfort and discounting delayed or uncertain consequences. Understanding such delay discounting can drive development of targeted interventions based on behavioral processes associated with failing to utilize preventive measures. Similarly, although high school athletes have an intense desire to participate in their sport, when given a choice, they often fail to utilize proven effective protective equipment (PE) which can prevent time loss injuries. This behavioral conflict between long- and short-term interests renders useless PE which can not prevent injuries if the athlete does not use it. Specific behavioral measures of impulsivity may be associated not only with an adolescent athlete's initial use of PE but also with maintaining consistent use. To maximize the effectiveness of proven yet underutilized PE like mouthguards, we must improve our understanding of athletes'decision making regarding PE use. This study's main objective is to investigate the relationship between high school baseball, softball, and basketball players'mouthguard use stage (Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) stage) and impulsive delay discounting (DD). The specific aims are: 1) measure athletes'knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (KABs) regarding mouthguard use as well as the athletes'perception of their parent's and coach's beliefs regarding mouthguard use, 2) assign athletes to a mouthguard use stage using the PAPM, 3) measure the concept of DD in athletes, and 4) investigate the relationship between DD and mouthguard use stage. The study hypothesis is that there will be a strong inverse relationship between DD and mouthguard use stage with student athletes'exhibiting high DD being in the lowest mouthguard use stage and student athletes'exhibiting low DD being in the highest mouthguard use stage. The information gained from this research, the first developmental stage of an anticipated new line of research, is expected to improve our understanding of high school athletes'decision making regarding use of mouthguards. Such knowledge is necessary to develop targeted interventions based on identification of behavioral factors that influence athletes'decision making regarding mouthguard use. The findings of this study will be used to develop future research projects in broader populations (i.e., broader age group of pediatric athletes, broader range of sports, and broader range of PE). The long term goal of this line of research is to decrease sports-related injuries among pediatric athletes by increasing use of proven effective yet underutilized sports PE such as mouthguards through targeted interventions based on behavioral factors that influence decision making regarding PE use. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The long term goal of this line of research is to decrease sports-related injuries among pediatric athletes by increasing use of proven effective yet underutilized sports PE such as mouthguards through targeted interventions based on behavioral factors that influence decision making regarding PE use. This addresses Healthy People 2010 Objective 15, Injury and Violence Prevention, sections 15-14, Reduce nonfatal unintentional injuries, and 15-31, Increase the proportion of public and private schools that require use of appropriate head, face, eye, and mouth protection for students participating in school-sponsored physical activities. Additionally this research addresses the general NIDCR mission to improve and promote craniofacial, oral and dental health through research and research training as well as the NIDCR plan to expand current research and encourage new studies of craniofacial injuries, including injury prevention programs targeted to the public to promote wearing protective head and face gear in sports and in operating riding vehicles.